With RM Auctions starting bidding on items from the storied Milhous collection today in Boca Raton, Florida, we thought we’d offer one last preview of a couple of noteworthy cars from that collection – a pair of one-of-none Cadillac V-16s built 50 years after they were first conceived.

One of the indisputable legends of the Classic car scene is restorer Fran Roxas, who in the early 1980s discovered that a designer at Fleetwood, then Cadillac’s in-house coachbuilder, had come up with a number of body designs for the magnificent Cadillac V-16 chassis that, as far as anybody knows, were never actually produced. Roxas decided that two of those designs – the Style 5859 Custom Phaeton and the Style 5802 Custom Roadster – deserved to be rendered in steel and thus set out to do exactly that. For both cars, Roxas had the equally legendary Strother MacMinn create full-size renderings based on the 1930s designs and based on factory blueprints of the Cadillac V-16 chassis provided by Dave Holls, then GM’s head of Advanced Design.

Roxas then secured a couple of Cadillac V-16 seven-passenger limousines, removed the bodies and began to construct the new phaeton and roadster bodies based on MacMinn’s renderings. He began with the 5859 Custom Phaeton, a dual-cowl design that includes a disappearing top and hidden spare tire for ultra-clean lines. At the 1984 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, it won first in its class. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that he then took on the 5802 Custom Roadster, a more ambitious build that included a rumbleseat under a disappearing top and a passenger door on one side only. Both cars are powered by Cadillac’s 185hp 452-cu.in. overhead-valve V-16. The Milhous brothers then bought both of the cars directly from Roxas in the mid- to late 1990s.

Pre-auction estimates for both cars range from $700,000 to $1 million. Both cars will cross the block tomorrow without reserve.

For more information on the Milhous collection sale, visit RMAuctions.com.

UPDATE (27.February 2012): Both cars sold for prices right around the top end of that pre-auction estimate. The phaeton sold for $962,500, while the roadster sold for $1,001,000.

It is beautiful but I’m w/ Phil – isn’t this a “custom”?
Check out the rest of the catalogue – cars, guns, furniture, musical instruments – where did this guy get the time, let alone the $, to aquire all these things?! More power to him…

Not being the devils advocate here, but if you want to take “custom” to an extreme, weren’t Deusenbergs and Auburns all one off cars also? i.e. no two were alike. No matter, these are 2 beautiful cars, constructed from factory prints and built on factory chassis.

Murphy, Derham, LeBaron,etc. all did “custom” coachwork, so yes, they are indeed customs. Fleetwood was the Cadillac in-house custom coachbuilder, so technically by design these are more pure than the outsourced work to Murphy. I like what Roxas did with these fabulous designs.

Man-o-man….and women wonder why men love their cars more than them. These are beauties that don’t talk back and satisfy completely.
Not being sexist here am I? So sorry ladies but I am a collector and these don’t cost as much as a divorce.
That’s all folks!

After a divorce, you wouldn’t have these cars either. LOL The heart of sexism is treating women as objects, and considering that neither of these cars will ever bring you a cold beer or pat you on the shoulder, they are merely nicely arranged atoms.

If you think about it many fine car chassis were re-bodied by coach builders in the 1930s. So what if these examples were re-bodied in the 1980s and 90s. If the same quality of craftsmanship was employed, and the designs actually came from Fleetwood 75 years ago… I’d consider them the real deal.

Lemble: I don’t see any resemblance to a cloned musclecar whatsoever? What are these clones of? They existed only as renderings before this. The chassis and powertrains are authentic 1930s Caddy V16s. They are not “being passed off” as replicas of any car at all. They are authentic V16 Cadillacs with bodies built in the 1980s. Do you really think they’re the same as a Chevelle coupe with a big block and a pair of tape stripes calling itself an SS454?

These are works of art, with great pedigree from both the chassis/engine and the design team that created them. They’re just highly desirable motorcars.

These are about as “real” as cars like this can get. Mac was a well known designer from this era and had a great deal of experience with cars of grand stature. There were few who had mastery of this genre at the level he had. So with his design work, Holls consulting, and a leading restoration expert to build these cars, you get the resultant elegance.

The cars won in the New Coachbuilt class at Pebble, not competing with cars that had bodies of “period origin”.

I am very interested to see what these cars will sell for. This sort of execution is not cheap to do in any quality shop, but the results are as magnificent as any period correct car. And with prices in the millions for cars that few can buy, these cars will surely fetch high dollars. In their own time, these cars will become 50 years old and blend in more easily to the automotive collector landscape, much like a coveted but rebodied car from the 50’s using a chassis from a pre-war car

The definition of a “cLassic car” seems somewhat arbitrary, as set forth by the CCA. Where is it carved in stone that any specific year, time frame, era, must determine its legitimacy? If a car is built today to precisely the same standards of quality, design,materials, etc, as those of the “Classic Era”, and is essentially their equal in all regards, why should it be be considered less worthy? The only reason I can see is simply snobbery.

Obviously, Excalibers, Panrthers, Clenets, and a host of fiberglas reproductions, no matter how well done are not, and never will be “classics”. But that’s NOT to say that aren’t interesting, and fun to drive

If I hadn’y missed winning the Powerball drawing by six numbers,I would be in Florida bidding on these!